Moore: “We don’t have to outsell Call of Duty”

Recently promoted EA COO Peter Moore has said EA doesn’t care about coming “second” to Activision in the big shooter-off, but does plan to carve away at Call of Duty’s market share.

“It’s less about being second place. This is about taking market share,” the executive told Gamespot of Battlefield 3’s release against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

“This is really about a long-term strategy in what we think is a very important shooter segment that has driven over the last few years multiple billions of dollars of revenue into the industry.

“If you look at last year, you might argue that Call of Duty took maybe 90 percent of the market share. We think we can knock that down to 70 percent this year.

“We don’t have to outsell Call of Duty to have a very successful year. This is a long-term strategy to be a major player, if not ultimately a dominant player in this industry. But it starts this year.”

Moore pointed to FIFA’s eventual rise to prominence alongside Pro Evolution Soccer as an example of the path EA means to take with shooters like Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Crysis.

Continuing the theme of the the mega-publisher’s not needing to dominate to succeed, the former EA Sports head said the company is committed to its EA Partners program despite low profit margins.

“We’ve got a very vibrant ecosystem and we’re always scouring the world for content in development that we really like, that we can make an investment in, help that developer get it over the finish line, and provide them a publishing engine,” he said, comparing EAP to the old EA Distribution system.

“I don’t know how many years the company has been doing this, but it’s something we’re very proud of. You have the big hits, the Rock Band type thing or Kingdoms of Amalur, and then we’ve got stuff we enjoy bringing to market.

“We work with developers we like, and we work with IP we think is very interesting. And we’re a big company that can put that stuff in the mix pretty easily and get after it.

“It’s not as high a margin as something we develop ourselves, but that’s not really the point. I think we have an obligation at times to give some of these great developers an outlet, and that’s something we need to do.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Moore commented on the decline of packaged sales, the industry’s emphasis on blockbusters, the ognoing difficulties between EA and Steam, and games as services. Hit the link above for the whole thing.